During my Royal Enfield WD/CO research, I have now found a 1943 War Department document which states that contract S/3357 should be delivered "with Kitson Pease gearbox". Has anybody ever heard of these gearboxes? To my knowledge, no Royal Enfield has ever been made with this make (???) of gearboxes, only Albion (and Burman for one single contract) gearboxes have been used for these military motorcycles. To be honest, I have never heard of a Kitson Pease gearbox. Is it slang? If so, what does it mean?
Or could this be a hint? On the website
http://www.trainweb.org/loggingz/builders_1.html I have found that Kitson & Co., Airedale Foundry, Leeds, England was “… a locomotive builder, which just failed to achieve its century, and the Airedale Foundry was finally sold to neighbours McClaren's in 1945.”. Does anybody know if Kitson was assembling gearboxes (and perhaps also other things) during the war years? Maybe because of the air raids on Coventry and Birmingham production was transferred elsewhere?
REgards,
Jan